The Ultimate (Afterlife) Defense Attorneys

A few days into Ramadan, your boy is checking in with a quick thought.

At the midpoint of last night's Taraweeh prayer, which I like to describe as the "Taraweeh Halftime Show", the Imam spoke about the virtues of fasting. It was formulaic and typical (not that I'm complaining) but what stood out to me was him saying that your fasts will intercede for you on the day of judgment.

My first reaction to that was:

Whaaa?

But once I gave it more thought, I realized that the Day of Judgment for everyone is going to go down like the most EPIC episode of Law and Order.  Now theres Qur'an verses which explicitly state that no person can intercede on behalf of someone else on the Day of Judgment. So essentially you're on your own. But when it comes to authentic and sound hadiths, you do have intercessors or defense attorneys on that Ultimate Court date. They just aren't your average joes like you or me.

Some will vouch for you, and some will testify against you, for instance your friggin' body parts (Eyes, Ears, Hands, Feet)! 

"Allah this man here is a piece of trash! You wouldn't believe what he used me for on a nightly basis!"

But what's most interesting is if you did your job on this earth and were an obedient Muslim, you end up having the greatest defense team that money can't buy!

Al-Tirmidhi Hadith 1963        Narrated by Abdullah ibn Amr 

Allah's Messenger (saws) said, "Fasting and the Qur'an will intercede for man (on the Day of Judgment). Fasting says, 'O my Lord, I have kept him away from his food and his passions by day, so accept my intercession for him.' The Qur'an says, 'I have kept him away from sleep by night, so accept my intercession for him.' Then their intercession is accepted."

I don't know about you but I think that's friggin' awesome! There you are sitting in court being judged before the Ultimate Judge, looking like a pathetic George Zimmerman, probably peeing your nonexistent pants (since the dress code on judgment day is nudity) awaiting the verdict and on the stand defending you and working to get you into paradise are defense attorneys in their walking, talking human form: Qur'an ("Furqan Matlock") and Fasting ("Siyam-ee Cochran")!

I'm sold! Saul Goodman can take a hike!

What's also interesting is--for the pious believer--your Qur'an defense attorney is also going to be your homie in the grave when you're being questioned by those creepy angels Munkar and Nakeer along with your other main man, your "Good deeds" in the flesh. Both of them will keep you company while you await your Day of Judgment court date, both not leaving your side until they fulfill their promise of getting you admitted into Paradise.

And if that's not enough of a solid defense, on top of that another intercessor is the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) himself who is the only human and prophet whose intercession Allah will listen to. If you have that entire defense team on your side, how can you go wrong? Case dismissed baby! Roll that funky murder-mystery music!